Su'a Cravens to Visit Michigan and Ohio State in the Next Week
According to Adam Gorney of Rivals, consensus 5 star safety Su'a Cravens will indeed make it on campus. How his visits and Michigan and OSU go will determine if he visits Nebraska. Still seems like a longshot given his timeline, but the key in recruiting is to get a player on campus. I don't think it's possible to overestimate how huge of a get Cravens would be.
Link: https://twitter.com/#!/adamgorney
Highlights:
Looks like we aren't the only school getting the courtesy visit. Cravens is all USC. The class they are putting together is nothing short of incredible.
So incredible, it is only 8 spots behind Michigan in the Scout ratings.
Pride aside, yes they do have a pretty insane class. I wouldn't switch with them, though, if given the choice.
But it's all about what they have on signing day and what their needs are. They really need more linemen, but the talent that they are in on and the talent they already have committed is very good. Not taking anything away from the Michigan commits, but USC is very solid at the skill positions on offense (#1 QB, #1 and #3 RB, 4 star WR that Michigan was high on). Give them a chance to fill out their class and they will be top 3 most likely and with a small class. Both Michigan's and USC's will have very good and very different classes.
USC will probably have the best class class ratings wise. It will be depth issues from their scholarship reductions that could stiffle their team's progress. It will be interesting to see how much effect that has over the next few years. Hopefully their inability to recruit as deeply into California the next couple years will allow us to make further inroads in the state.
Ohio State? I thought he announced a final 3 of SC, NU, and us. Visiting the worst state ever may taint the entire experience. God have mercy on his soul.
Scout's Brandon Huffman interviewed him (yesterday?) and Cravens clarified he's down to a four of USC, UCLA, OSU and Michigan with the trips outlined in the OP.
He compares Michigan to Ohio, and finds Ohio very, very wanting in comparison. Leaves with a very positive impression of Michigan
Just to be safe, I'm upgrading to BuckleCon 4
His coach announced his final three were USC, Michigan and Nebraska, and that he would be visiting Michigan and Nebraska. Sua later tweeted that wasn't true, and then came out with the final 4 in the OP.
Not to be a Donny-downer but who was the last recruit we went head-up against USC with and won? That's a battle we havent fared so well on lately.
Damn nice SoCal weather....damn school proximity to LA.......
You might be right which, if true, does not bode well for Cravens now does it?
While the truth may set you free it does tend to get one tagged as "flamebait" when it appears on a message board......
Yea, one player who performed well and made a silly decision to leave early for the NFL means that any recruit we compete with SC for will do the same. That makes perfect sense.
What on earth are you talking about? I asked who was the last recruit we went head-up against USC on and won. And he mentioned Warren - his ultimate pro status had nothing to do with the question or the answer.
Look - I sincerely hope Cravens goes blue. I hope all our potential recruits go blue. But it seemed to me that despite how great we are doing with kids out of Ohio we are getting beat when USC is in the mix. If you disagree and think we are doing better than it appears to me anyways please point it out.
My point was that any connection you are trying to make between Donovan Warren and Cravens other than the offers from both programs seems tenuous at best. I don't think anything about Donovan Warren doesn't bode well for Michigan with Cravens.
The fact of the matter is, SC is and always will be tough to beat for a recruit, especially if the kid is from California. I don't have delusions that Cravens will come here, it's highly unlikely. It's just seemed strange to me to think that because Warren made a mistake during his career that would affect Cravens' decision whatsoever.
Also, Erik Magnuson had an SC offer but stayed blue, if we want to count that as a win.
Why are you bringing up your wife?
Are you inside Mgroworld's head too? Maybe he was, in fact, talking about how Warren's career would affect Cravens' decision. Regardless, my point was that one data point shouldn't make us abandon hope that Michigan will land more kids in head to head battles with SC.
I know that Cravens probably won't go to Michigan, I'm just saying that connecting the two dots, whether its in terms of their careers, the time that's passed since we snagged a recruit, whatever, doesn't seem to be on point. Since Donovan Warren committed, a lot has happened. Michigan now has a staff with significant connections to California (Hoke/Borges at SDSU, Borges at UCLA) and is recruiting like gangbusters, beating out a ton of premier schools for premier talent, and in head-to-head battles that haven't gone Michigan's way a lot. There are plenty of reasons to think that Cravens will go to SC over Michigan, I just don't think anything relating to Donovan Warren is one of them.
And don't assume I am angrily defending my thread or anything, I'm just discussing a topic. The reason I have an MGoBlog account is because it is the only place on the internet I feel like conversations are worthwhile. Disagree with me all you like, who cares?
No WolvinLA2 pretty much nailed my thinking to the letter.
I posed a rhetorical question.
You seemed to be unhappy that I implied that our chances were less than awesome here given our history going up against USC
You tossed in a complete non-sequitur in an attempt to discredit my point (valid or not) that we have not done well historically recruiting against USC
I challenged what your non-sequitur had to do with anything I was saying on any level
You sounded like a wife (trust me I know - I've had two of them)
It's hard to say he made a mistake with the kind of coaching he had
How many recruits have we gone head to head with USC and lost? I'm sure there are a few, but we're not seriously recruiting the same guys that often. We might have offers out to guys who go there, but I'm sure some of the talent we've gotten had offers from USC, but neither were probably seriously considering the other.
It seems like a long time since we've gotten one since it doesnt' happen that often. And the last guy went to USC.
The weather is hard to beat...take that as a fact from a Michigander who moved out here a couple years ago. However, the one thing I have never understood is how USC covers up the fact that the neighborhoods directly bordering campus are pretty crappy. I mean, sure there are probably bad areas around any large University Campus to some extent, but it's really not that nice. I would much rather hang around and explore the areas around AA than USC any day.
Plus, anyone who has visited downtown LA or Hollywood can tell you that it's nothing near what most people think it is. Much dirtier, much less sexy than the mind would have you believe. Just my two cents on a Tuesday morning.
The planned 11-13% state income tax is also pretty sucky, but would imagine that most of the 'benefits' provided by USC aren't reported on most tax returns filed by their players.
I kid, I kid...kinda.
I moved from SoCal to Houston and I got an automatic 10% raise, simple due to no state income taxes. Can't say I miss that.
However, LA is pretty cool even though there are things about it that drive me nuts (405, 5, 101, etc etc). You can't drive anywhere on any day without getting stuck in traffic, it's absurd. Plus, everything happens in LA and there are so many places to go and things to do.
I just have a hard time justfying a lot of the extra cost of the area. Go to the bar, pay 7-10 bucks for a mixed drink and 5-8 dollars for a beer. That's a long way from some of the bars i used to go to back home where it was 3 dollar wells and 2.50 20 oz beers all day every day. Fuel, groceries, and many other necessary items are also inflated. Now true, recruits don't have to deal with those types of things, but still, it's not an easy route.
Then again, when i was 17 years old if you had told me, "hey, you can live here where it's 80 degrees year round and all the girls look like models" i would have probably overlooked a lot of wrongs as well.
Hot Button = Song Girl
It's supposed to be 97 in Ann Arbor on Saturday. I think I'll be headed up to Mackinaw this weekend.
If you time it right, A2 has better weather than SoCal. In the summer, A2 is warm and clear and sunny, while SoCal is brown and dusty and smoggy.
Once you get beyond the weather, A2 is a much better town than USC's South Central area at all times.
That's why you try to live west of the 405. Temperatures easily go from the 80s to the 100s when you drive from Santa Monica to Arcadia
Sam McGuffie, Erik Magnuson, Terry Richardson, James Ross.
not USC.
Woodley was down to UM and USC at one point.
It is an absolute certainity that he wins 4 Heismans while Michigan wins 4 national titles, for a start.
...still think it's impossible to overestimate how big of a get he'll be?
The real threat from LA is the babes. Personally, I'd choose UCLA to USC because really, how dumb is the peace sign turned victory symbol USC fans make? Almost as bad as the "We are - Penn State" cheers at PSU home games. Like no shit? You're Penn State? Thanks for clearing that up. I couldn't tell by the 100,000 fans in white with Penn State caps. Could you tell me where the Wisconsin stadium is? I think I'm lost.
All valid points.
Although Kiffin and Meyer have supposedly "made up," I would guess that there will be some words they will communicate to Craven about each others' schools. Could UM claim the "moral high ground" and come away looking much better than either SC or Ohio?
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0905/sports.f…
warm weather, beaches and babes; tough to beat to an 18 year old male. We all get why a lot of the West Coast and SEC schools recruit so well. I just hope our coaches take the opportunity to explain why playing in a colder climate in college may vey well benefit them at the next level. I'm sure it's pretty tough to play in Pittsburgh, Green Bay, Chicago, etc. as a pro if you've never really experienced those adverse conditions at the collegiate level.